1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic cash register system for a food dispensing business. More specifically, the present invention relates to an improved electronic cash register system adapted for quickly and automatically issuing an order slip when a waiter accepts an order from a customer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Electronic cash registers have been used to register the data of commodities as purchased by a customer and to issue a receipt. Such an electronic cash register is disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,946,217, issued Mar. 23, 1976 to Atsushi Tsujikawa et al. and assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. As electronic cash registers come to be widely used, such have also been used in a food dispensing business, such as in restaurants, coffee shops and so on. Conventionally, electronic cash registers have been used in a food dispensing business in the following manners. More specifically, according to one way, a waiter or waitress accepts an order of foods or drinks which a customer desires and then writes down by hand the names or abbreviations of the foods or drinks which the customer ordered into an order slip. The waiter than hands over a copy of the order slip to the customer and hands over another copy to a cook or orally informs him of the customer's order. After the ordered foods and drinks are cooked, the same are served to a customer. When the customer checks out after the meal, he brings the order slip to a cash register operator. The operator operates the electronic cash register based on the data on the order slip so that the codes of the items such as foods, drinks and so on and the prices of the items are entered and the total amount as registered is paid by the customer. According to another way of using electronic cash registers, upon acceptance of an order from a customer, a waiter writes down by hand the names of the items the customer ordered in a memorandum and thereafter the waiter operates the electronic cash register for the purpose of a registering operation and a totaling operation. A totaled amount is stored in a memory for each customer in the electronic cash register and is used for payment by the customer. An order slip is then printed out by the electronic cash register and the waiter brings one copy to a cook and another copy to the customer. Meanwhile, if a kitchen printer coupled to the electronic cash register is installed in a kitchen, it is not necessary for the waiter to bring the copy of the order slip to the kitchen.
According to the first mentioned method, however, it is necessary that the waiter writes down by hand the names of the items such as foods and drinks the customer ordered in an order slip, which requires much time in accepting an order from a customer and decreases a business efficiency of the shop and prolongs a waiting time period of the customer. On the other hand, according to the latter mentioned method, an advantage is brought about that since a registering operation is made on the occasion of acceptance of an order a kitchen printer can be coupled to the electronic cash register and hence transfer of the order to the kitchen is automated and a control of an unpaid amount of the customer becomes simple. Nevertheless, it is required that the waiter once accepts an order of the items such as foods and drinks by writing down by hand the names of the items in a memorandum and then he enters the data again into the electronic cash register, causing two tiresome manual operations and causing the electronic cash register to consume more time for a registering operation, with the result that when a number of waiters make a provisonal registering operation using fewer electronic cash registers than there are waiters, the waiting time period for the customer is prolonged and efficiency is degraded. If and when a further method is employed wherein a waiter bears the names of the ordered foods and drinks in mind and then he enters the data into an electronic cash register to eliminate a handwriting work, then an error is liable to occur.